Article by Francesca Sacco for PME magazine. 10.04.2023
The awakening of ecological awareness has infiltrated all areas of life. Even the management of work teams.
The idea is in the air. The concept of sustainable development is intimately linked to the collective awareness of the need to preserve the environment. This obvious fact has progressively asserted itself in political, economic, and social life. Thus, for several years, «sustainability» has been an integral part of the jargon of employers' social responsibility. Environmentally conscious companies have become sustainable – just like marketing, public institutions, cities, and any product we buy.
What if this theory also applied to human resources? In a society that is becoming increasingly aware of the extent of psychosocial risks at work, this question challenged the French-speaking Swiss consultant Frédéric Meuwly, director of the Actitudes firm in Vevey. «I was struck by certain initiatives, such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and the Solar Impulse project, and I wanted to understand by what kind of «magic» certain teams managed to stand out by being efficient on a human level too,» he explains.
As early as 2005, convinced of the existence of a similarity between the primary definition of sustainability and work groups that withstand the test of time, the consultant sought to identify the success criteria of a team. Drawing inspiration from the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda model, which sets 17 global sustainable development goals, he identified a total of 18 key factors that can be worked on in a structured manner. In 2020, Frédéric Meuwly formalized his methodology in a book titled «Sustainable Teams,» which has sold over 1000 copies to date – a figure synonymous with a bestseller for the French-speaking Swiss market.
«The teams that move better and faster? Those with better collaborative dynamics.»
If you do an internet search, you will see that for several years there have already been a number of methods, training courses, and workshops related to «sustainable» management. Almost invariably, the expression is taken in a fairly broad sense; it encompasses both corporate social responsibility, environmental resource management, and the control of the ecological impact of processes, but also the prevention and promotion of health at work, for example. However, Frédéric Meuwly's approach specifically focuses on team success factors: supportive management, clarity of roles and processes, feedback culture, group cohesion, continuous learning, staff stimulation and recognition, etc.
This methodology particularly appeals to SMEs and public or semi-private institutions. It is also the subject of two in-company master's theses, currently being carried out at AlpWatt Sàrl and Romande Energie, as part of the HES-SO Executive MBA. Among the client companies and organizations, we can mention the French-speaking Swiss engineering firm RWB, the Sarine Health Network, Firmenich, and the Vaud Cantonal Fire and Natural Hazards Insurance Establishment (ECA).
Furthermore, Frédéric Meuwly was invited by Swiss Leaders to present his approach in a public conference and webinar to the association's members.
At Firmenich, over 2000 employees have already been trained. «The idea that it is possible to apply sustainability factors to team management convinced us, because we have inherited a particular sensitivity to environmental issues from our long history as a family business,» explains HRD Guy Zehnder. The same enthusiasm at RWB, in Porrentruy: «Our objective was to develop the teams» ability to mobilize knowledge from the field. This requires skills that our managers do not necessarily possess, because, fundamentally, they have an engineering background. This approach was a first for us, but after just one workshop, we were able to set up internal peer coaching," states Samuel Beuchat, its director.
For Ornella Macheda, HRD of the Sarine Health Network, the experience helped strengthen trust. «This was what we wanted, because if relationships are good, people are more willing to get involved in how teams function. So we started by training all our managers, adopting a micro-project approach to aim for quick and measurable effects. We wanted to avoid falling into the trap of those initiatives whose end, or even results, are never seen! In the end, everyone who participated decided to continue, and the initiative was renewed.»
In his career, which began in the pharmaceutical industry with a background as a young engineer, Frédéric Meuwly quickly noticed that it was difficult for a team to develop on a human level, in addition to achieving numerical objectives. He believed in the traditional rule that 80% of success is attributable to quality and only 20% to teamwork. «Experience proved me wrong! Indeed, I saw teams getting bogged down in counterproductive dynamics even though they had been assigned a promising project, while others moved better and faster, thanks to better collaborative dynamics.»
